Week 34

AREA: Central Tucson 
COMPANION: Elder Kapele

Hello Family & Friends,
Monday: Didn't do a whole lot today... Spent most of the day packing
and getting ready for the transfer. Said goodbye to some people which
was fun. Said goodbye to the Al and Sandy which was sad:( Also Said
goodbye to Kristina, Richard, and Richie. That's pretty much all I
did...
Tuesday: Transfers was today... Finished  up all my packing and then
went over to the church where the transfer was going to happen. Got to
the transfer sight way early so we decided to go say goodbye to
Brother Barney. Said goodbye then went to the transfer sight, got in
the van and sat in the van for like 4 hours going in a big circle...
Finally made it to Tucson and had a blast unpacking  and making my new
apartment home.
Wednesday: First official day in the new area. Pretty awesome, zone
meeting was today which was fun. Got to meet the new zone and meet
some new people. After zone meeting we went out for lunch as a
district, went home to change, saw a member from the ward, had dinner,
and then we had a set lesson for 7:00 but they weren't home so we box
knocked around the house. That was a cool experience... Nobody wanted
to really talk to us but it was fun. We then met up with the other
missionaries that share the ward I'm in and had a lesson.
Thursday:Today was a really good service day. We went to the food bank
and were there for a long time. We helped move over 16,000 lbs of
food. After that we had lunch and then helped someone move. Had dinner
and then went to the ward missionaries house and had the most awkward
meeting ever... Just told us his expectations of us which was like
insanely high.
Friday: TODAY WAS AWESOME:) We spent most of the day weekly planning
which was great. As we talked about each person we were planning for
we prayed for each one individually.  After weekly planning we had
dinner, oh my was that fun... The sister that fed us was very old and
doesn't know how to cook... Very appreciative of her feeding us
though. After dinner we went and tried to see some of the
investigators that we haven't seen in awhile and nobody was home.
Elder Kapele felt that we should go see Eric one of those
investigators. We get to his apartment and he wasn't home... As we
were walking back to the car we see a young couple moving into the
apartment complex so we offered to help them move in. Helped them move
in and ended up teaching them the Resotration! It was awesome! We are
going back on Wednesday to teach the plan of Salvation.
Saturday: Not as great of a day as yesterday... This morning we had a
lesson that was a complete failure... She dropped us hardcore so that
was fun... We then went to a baptism for the other set of missionaries
in our ward. The baptism was great except we had to give the 5 minute
teaching moment and the thing our ward mission leader talked about on
Wednesday was how we need to blow everyone away with the spirit with
our teaching... Not only was the ward mission leader there our mission
president was there. I was super nervous and so was Kapele and we did
a horrible job at our 5 minute teaching moment. The evening was not as
bad... We went to Roy's for dinner and I cooked everyone chicken, The
chicken was pretty good if you ask me. We had the adult session of
stake conference which was pretty good.
Sunday: Stake conference was today. We had an investigator at church
which was super exciting:) He brought 3 of his kids and they did a
pretty good job at staying calm. We did have to distract them a few
times... After conference we went home to eat lunch and took a lunch
nap. We then went and visited a bunch of potential investigators. The
list we have is huge and we're trying to figure out who is real and
who isn't. Got through a lot of them which was a bit of a relief.
Sadly none of the people had addresses that worked.

My spiritual thought this week is the power of the Restoration. No
matter how many times I teach and study the Restoration of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ I learn something new or have a different spiritual
moment. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father and he blesses
us with families to learn and grow in the gospel. He blesses us with
prophets to lead and guide us. They communicate with our Heavenly
Father to know what we need to do to return to live with our Heavenly
Father. I know that through the Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ's church
was restored to the earth. I am so grateful for this Gospel and the
blessings that it has brought to my life. I love you all! Hope you
have a great week!

Love,

Elder Smith